


rules say our emotions don't comply (but we'll defy the rules until we die)

by aletterinthenameofsanity



Series: "eloquent rants": or, happy endings are acts of revolution [3]
Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, BAMF Women, Bisexual Emma Swan, Bisexual Female Character, Character Study, F/F, Fairy Tale Retellings, Family, Found Family, Happy Ending, Meta, They deserved better, Women Being Awesome, Women In Power, and it's a crime that i've never written for it before, anti captain swan, hey i'm still pissed about the missed opportunity of this ship, in the same style as my merlin fic, once again a casual "fuck you" to canon, swan queen is still one of my original F/F ships, you all will get to read my "eloquent rant"
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-09
Updated: 2019-09-09
Packaged: 2020-10-12 22:29:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,227
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20571986
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aletterinthenameofsanity/pseuds/aletterinthenameofsanity
Summary: Emma Swan is not the story of a tragedy. She is not a story about a flower wilting, about a rose with its thorns cut.It would be a horrendous mistake to ever, ever suggest that she is the damsel. God, in any reading of Emma Swan’s story she is the Disney prince, who comes in and saves the day, wielding a sword and being the hero in her own story. She wears tank tops and leather jackets, wears jeans far more comfortably than she would ever wear a skirt. She takes no shit from anyone and she loves unconditionally, wanting to protect the fragile people she calls her family.Regina Mills is not the story of a villain, or a woman who was forced to pay for her mistakes for the rest of her life by watching all her lovers die and her son stolen away from her.No, Regina Mills is a story about a woman who fucked up and realizes it and tries to redeem herself, who tries and tries and tries to build a family who would love her like she loves them.God, why would you ever want a pirate to enter this story? Why would Emma Swan ever need a love interest when she has the woman who’s the other mother of her son, who would brave Neverland and Wonderland and the ends of the earth to protect Henry?





	rules say our emotions don't comply (but we'll defy the rules until we die)

**Author's Note:**

> Title is from "Sinners" by Lauren Aquilina.
> 
> So, uh, hey. I still have feelings about this stupid show *years* after I stopped watching it- which I think was halfway through season 4, if I'm right. Emma and Regina had so much more potential than Outlaw Queen or especially Captain Swan ever did, and what happened to Emma's character in the show was utterly *criminal.* I'm still pissed about it to this day, if I'm honest. So just like my Merlin fic, I'm giving you a slightly "eloquent rant," as a commenter on that fic called it. 
> 
> Hope you all like it!

_When they ask you what your favorite moment is, you will say her. _

_You will always say her._

**-Caitlyn Siehl,** _ ** Her Her Her** _

Emma Swan is not the story of a tragedy. She is not a story about a flower wilting, about a rose with its thorns cut.

It would be a horrendous mistake to ever, ever suggest that she is the damsel. God, in any reading of Emma Swan’s story she is the Disney prince, who comes in and saves the day, wielding a sword and being the hero in her own story. She wears tank tops and leather jackets, wears jeans far more comfortably than she would ever wear a skirt. She takes no shit from anyone and she loves unconditionally, wanting to protect the fragile people she calls her family.

And her family, what a story they tell. Stories of princes and princesses, bandits and those who stole their hearts, evil queens redeemed and a goblin whose heart was softened by a princess. Criminals and queens and villains and heroes and everything in between. A family and a story littered with redemption arcs and failures, victories and defeats, happy endings and stories that never end.

Emma Swan and her family are not unused to tragedy and grief, but that is not how their stories end. They are not trapped into conventional fairy tales, where the prince saves the damsel, gets to marry her, has a baby, and fades off the page.

No, this is a family that stories are written about. This is a family that is far more than any words could describe. This is a family who has a story book written about them, a somewhat honest one, a somewhat deceitful one. This is a family that never stops trying, that will always come back to each other, that we'll find each other in any world, in any life.

This is the story that Emma Swan is in too. She's not in a story about damsels and princesses locked in towers who don't find ways to rescue themselves. She is a woman who _is_ the dragon, who fights with a sword and a gun and a badge and never gives in. She is a woman who finds out she has a son and despite the fact that she doesn't believe his fairytales still believes in _ him_.

Emma Swan is a woman who meets her son’s other mother and starts to fall in love with Regina Mills, a bitter, resentful woman doing her best to be good, to redeem herself, to heal from heartbreak.

Regina Mills is not the story of a villain, or a woman who was forced to pay for her mistakes for the rest of her life by watching all her lovers die and her son stolen away from her.

No, Regina Mills is a story about a woman who fucked up and realizes it and tries to redeem herself. She is the story of a woman who spends years trying to right the injustices she’s made, who tries and tries and tries to build a family who would love her like she loves them.

God, why would you ever want a pirate to enter this story? Why would Emma Swan ever need a love interest when she has the woman who’s the other mother of her son, who would brave Neverland and Wonderland and the ends of the earth to protect Henry?

When both Regina and Emma can break curses with their love for their son, when their stories have only ever been about how much they both want a family of their own and how far they’re willing to go to protect said family? When they are two of the most magically powerful women in the world, when they can defeat evil untold with their shared magic?

Why wouldn’t this story end with the two of them kissing after developing a love for each other that is strong enough to break curses on its own? Why wouldn’t this story end with a happily-ever-after with the two of them raising a son together, a son who believes in nothing more than his two mothers?

Emma supports Regina when her mother dies. Regina helps Emma come to terms with her own status within their fairy tale community. The two of them charge into Neverland, united in their desire to save Henry, and Peter Pan is nothing compared to their combined wrath and power.

They're a good team. The best team. They save Storybrooke and save Neverland and, most of all, save Henry, and the world prospers for it. Together they are Good, together they are Heroes, together they write a fairytale that doesn't end with a Prince saving a Princess from a Dragon but rather a story where the Princess _is_ the Dragon, where the Evil Queen falls in love with the Princess, where happily-ever-afters are not determined by age old rules and expectations but rather by love and sacrifice and an unwillingness to let each other go. 

When Peter Pan casts his curse, Regina doesn't return to the Enchanted Forest. Emma and Henry don't go to Manhattan. Instead, as the cloud of magic descends, Emma kisses Regina for the first time and the curse breaks before it even lands, green ribbons of magic shattering all around them. They are left standing there with smiles on their faces and a shared understanding of each other.

You see, Regina and Emma both understand each other. They understand violent, protective love of family, understand making less than moral decisions to protect the ones you love, understand desperation and bad decisions and life-long regrets. They understand bad childhoods and not being good enough and having to prove to the world that you are something worth looking at as more than just a pretty face. They understand how their story came to this point, how a book of fairytales ends here rather than with a prince for either of them.

So they live on from this moment, together. Emma moves from her small Storybrooke apartment into the Mills' household, works as the Sheriff to Regina's mayor, raises her and Regina's son together. Regina wears the most fashionably tailored blazers and silk blouses and Emma wears her tank tops and leather jackets and they complement each other like no one ever has, with their grey morality and desire to protect their son and their unconditional support of each other.

Emma doesn't collapse into the perfect little wife for Captain Hook, doesn't get everything that makes her bright swallowed by a pirate who plays with her. Regina doesn't lose True Love after True Love before living alone forever, consigned to tragedy for the crime of trying too hard to make things right.

That's not the story either of them deserve, after all. Emma Swan and Regina Mills are not a story of tragedy. They are a story of learning from your mistakes, of learning to love again, of learning what makes you strong and holding onto that. They are a story of finding your way back after being lost, of finding the person who gives you the strength to save yourself.

Once upon a time, Emma and Regina built a life together, fighting evil and raising their son and saving Storybrooke and loving each other like no one ever has.

And they lived.

Happily ever after.

**Author's Note:**

> Hey, if you liked this, please feel free to comment- every comment is appreciated, as comments are a writer's lifeblood, after all!


End file.
